


I Mean, It Had Alien DNA

by ajay_lotte



Series: The Yellow Car Initiative [9]
Category: Daredevil (Comics), Daredevil (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Venom (Comics), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: And I can't actually remember if Sam made it into this, And that he's rooting for Brave, Avengers Movie Night, Because he's a good man, Birthday, Birthday Presents, But if he isn't mentioned just pretend he's there, Eddie Brock doesn't make a full on appearance, Games, Gen, He's just spoken about a lot, Movie Night, Sparring, yellow car game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:22:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27141040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ajay_lotte/pseuds/ajay_lotte
Summary: In which Clint gets drunk, Foggy finds out the truth about Eddie, and Matt gets Nat the perfect birthday gift.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Matt Murdock, Matt Murdock & Avengers Team, Matt Murdock & Franklin "Foggy" Nelson
Series: The Yellow Car Initiative [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1883668
Comments: 12
Kudos: 178





	I Mean, It Had Alien DNA

**Author's Note:**

> Yooo, thought I'd temporarily tone the series down a bit with a less high profile event for a sweet moment... more devilish shenanigans in the next update :0  
> Marvel owns all these characters and stuff, this is just a fanfiction for my own amusement because I suck, I'm bored, and have numerous unhealthy headcanons about Matt meeting Eddie  
> Warnings: swearing- maybe this should stop coming under warnings by now... eh, oh well  
> Happy reading, Lotte :)

Daredevil and Clint are out drinking. It’s something they do fortnightly. Though this time, Clint’s decided to turn all sad drunk. “I just…” he slumps against the table, sulking, “I really love her Red, and Nat deserves to be happy on her birthday, but nobody wants to spar with an Avenger, let alone a trained assassin.”

“That’s what she asked for?” Red growls. “A sparring partner?”

“Yeah.” Clint replies, just as sad. “Anyone who wants to fight her are easily defeated as it’s more of an idol thing, and anyone good enough says no because she’ll easily beat them to a pulp, and when it’s as easy as that, Nat doesn’t want to fight them anyway.” Matt hums.

“Has Nat ever lost to anyone?” He takes a sip of his beer, and Clint makes some thinking noises.

Matt wishes he could un-hear them.

That would be nice.

“Yeah.” Matt quirks an eyebrow, remembers Clint can’t see through his mask, then cocks his head to the side. “She refused to tell me his name, just that he was a ‘fucking old bastard who should stick the fuck away from children’.” For a second, Red turns into Matt as his grip tightens around his bottle. He forces himself to think there’s no way it can be him. It wouldn’t be. “You know him?”

“No.”

“Your jaw is doing a thing.” Matt quickly forces all his emotions to leave his face. “Now that’s just creepy. But your knuckles are still white. You know, I think you sometimes forget I’m a trained spy.”

“I think you sometimes forget I’m a trained spy.” Red mocks. His voice is pitched high, squeaky and childish. Like Clint’s.

“Hey! I don’t sound like that!” As he thought, like Clint’s. But also: distraction. 

Success.

Red hightails it out the window.

“Red!” Clint yells. Daredevil throws his head back with a laugh from the top of the neighbouring fire escape. “You can’t leave me; I’m drunk!”

Fuck.

Daredevil goes back and wallows in his own self pity whilst Clint just gets more drunk. Matt has a nine o’clock meeting tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow morning comes, the meeting goes well, but as soon as it’s over thoughts plague Matt’s head leaving him unable to concentrate. He’s normally able to keep his night life and day job separate, switching between the two fairly confidently. But this is different, this is his social life, and his co-workers are his social life, and it’s all blending together.

“Matt, your face is doing a thing. What’s up buddy?” Foggy asks, placing their coffees on the desk. “Please say they’re not having sex in the office next door again.”

That elicits a chuckle from Matt. He shakes his head with a fond smile. “No, Fogs, they’re not having sex in the office next door again. I’m worried about Nat’s birthday.”

Foggy falters: he pauses for so long Matt actually wonders if it’s him who’s broken. “Oh my god.” Foggy says. “You actually told me what’s wrong. Ok, birthdays. I’m good at birthdays. What does Nat like- I don’t know who she is but… new girlfriend?”

Matt hums. “Old girlfriend.” He never took the mask off… he wonders if he did if it could have ended different. But now’s not the time to be thinking that when they’re such good friends… occasionally with benefits.

“Ok, stop with the smirk thanks Matt.”

Emotionless face strike two.

“What does Nat like?”

“Guns.” Foggy was obviously not ready for that answer. “I met her a long time ago Foggy. I’d only just started being Daredevil.” Matt doesn’t think that attempt at comfort made it better. Instead of waiting to hear what Foggy has to say, Matt steps in with another answer. “She likes jewellery.”

“I can work with jewellery. What kind does she like? Earrings, necklaces, bracelets…”

“Practical jewellery.” Matt quotes, cutting Foggy’s list off. That stumps Foggy. “Yeah, I don’t know either. I think it’s for stabbing and electrocuting people and stuff, and Nat tried to show me photos ages ago, but obviously I couldn’t see them… and I don’t know where to…”

“Matt.” Foggy interrupts.

“Yeah?”

“I’m not letting you buy your ex-girlfriend weapons for her birthday.”

“Hey; I’m not like Peter.”

“Peter?”

“No, not Peter. Peter. Peter Quill. He makes enemies out of his exes. At least I still get along with mine and don’t have risk of them trying to kill me the next time I see them.”

“Eddie.” Foggy says.

“What?”

“Eddie.” He repeats. “Eddie Brock. That guy you dated when we were interning at Landman and Zack. Ringing any bells.”

“Yeah, but he never tried to kill me.”

“Matt. I was there!”

“You were where?” Karen asks, joining them after a long and excrutiating meeting with some new clients. Matt actually felt sorry for her just from having to listen to it, and he wasn’t even paying it any attention.

“With Matt when one of his exes came back and tried to kill him. It was three months ago, Matt.”

“Oh, I never told you.” Matt says. “That wasn’t Eddie.” Foggy doesn’t say anything, but at least he’s not calling Matt crazy yet. “That was Venom. I think he was jealous.”

“Venom.” He’s sceptical. It’s that tone of voice. “My eyebrow is raised so high right now Matt. Venom?”

“Yeah; an alien parasite. He wanted to kill me… it wasn’t Eddie; he was just using Eddie’s body. In fact, I think Eddie was completely comatose during that attack.”

“I need another coffee.” Karen says, leaving the conversation as quickly as she joined it.

“So let me get this straight.” Foggy says. “Your ex-boyfriend got infected with an alien parasite.” Matt nods. “Who fell in love with its host.” Matt nods again. “Who must’ve still had some feelings for you for the parasite to become jealous. Then the parasite came three months ago. Three months ago! To try to kill you.” Matt nods. “And then what. Did you know it was Eddie?”

“Actually, that confused me for a couple of weeks. Because you were adamant it was Eddie, and you weren’t lying. But I was so sure it wasn’t, and I’m pretty good at recognising people.” Matt says. “I mean, it had alien DNA. But then Eddie, awake, came around and explained, and he let me speak to Venom, who’s pretty chill, and…”

“You didn’t.” Foggy says, cutting Matt off. Matt just smirks. “Matt!”

“What? I like Eddie. There’s this girl now, and it’s a whole lot of complicated for him, which makes it so much better for the three of us, and…”

“Ok, Matt. Refer to the contract of what we need to know.” Matt stops talking. “I’m glad things are working out for you buddy, but maybe this we could talk about over some beers as friends at Josie’s rather than in the office. Sound good?” He nods. “Let’s go back to the problem at hand. Is there anything else you can get for Nat?”

“Clint wants to get her a sparring partner.”

“Clint. Who’s Clint?”

Matt keeps his face neutral. “A child.” He’ll be damned if he ever gives this question a helpful answer.

“Right. So, a sparring partner. That’s Clint’s present… I think you need to think of something else, Matty.”

“Foggy, you don’t understand.” Matt whines, like a child, and he’s not above saying that. Not when he’s feeling childish. “She’s unbeatable.”

“I’m sure Clint’s got it covered Matty.”

“Please stop calling me Matty!” Matt stands up abruptly, shocking both himself and Foggy. He sits down again. “Sorry, I… it’s…” he sighs “…complicated. I shouldn’t have bought this up. How long until the next clients come in?”

“An hour. But we need to work on our opening for…”

“I’ll be back.” And Matt’s out of the office before Foggy even has chance to argue. He’s not even out the building before he’s got his phone out. “Ring Nat.” He commands.

“Red, hey.” She answers on the first ring.

“It’s your birthday on Saturday. You lied to me.”

“And you’ve never told me the truth. I think a fake birthday qualifies as acceptable by now. Have you been talking to Clint?”

“Yeah.”

“On a job or at a bar.”

“The latter.” She hums. “He said you wanted a sparring partner.”

“That or some practical jewellery. I don’t expect you to get me anything though, Red. Are you coming to movie night tonight?” Matt doesn’t answer. “Come to movie night tonight. Seven as always. If you show up, Stark has to give me a hundred bucks. The bet’s been rolled over for weeks.”

“I don’t do movies.”

“I know. Come anyway? For an espionage case file if not the movie.”

“I’ll be there.”

Matt pockets his phone and continues his walk. Five minutes later there’s a beep in his pocket and he realises he hadn’t hung up. He needs to start doing that. If that’s the way someone figures out his secret identity, Foggy’ll never let him live it down. Ever. He buys some donuts for Foggy and returns to work.

Daredevil enters the unit through the front doors, and Nat’s there to greet him. “Red.”

“Nat.” She leads him to the common room, and Matt cocks his head to the side. For so long he’s been refusing the Avengers movie nights despite countless invites, and now he’s finally here it all seems like a waste of time. There’s so much food. Popcorn, nuts, crisps, beers, wine, cheese and crackers, grapes, cucumber, satsumas. “Impressive huh?” Clint asks. “Tony went extra ‘cause he wasn’t sure what you liked… not that I’m complaining. What do you prefer… Brave or How To Train Your Dragon?”

“Umm…” If Matt was smart and wore his FRIDAY glasses under the black cowl, this wouldn’t have been a problem. He knew what he was signing himself up to. “Which ones Brave?”

“The one with the princess who looks like Nat and fires bows like Clint.” Steve says. The first fact means nothing to him, but the second…?

“How To Train Your Dragon.” It didn’t require a thought.

It also receives an appreciative snort from Tony and offended gasps from his partners in crime. Or stopping crime.

There’s only so much food he can eat, and sight dependant jokes he can listen to before he starts to get bored and starts shifting in his seat. Even distinguishing the characters voices between his company’s voices starts to get difficult and the film becomes a whole new level of confusing. Concentration went out of the window eons ago. “Red?” Clint asks. He perks to attention in his seat.

“Yeah?”

“You doing ok?” No. No he is not. Matt’s brain is yelling at him to do something, but his body is forcing him to stay here and act like everyone else. It’s resulting in a very casual internal crisis and Matt would very much like to go and beat the shit out of some criminals now. “You kind of look like you want to murder the TV.”

“Please don’t.” Tony says. Matt then realises the film’s not playing.

“You stopped it.”

“Yeah, like five minutes ago. You weren’t watching it.”

“I’m sorry.” That stumps the groups of heroes.

“Hey, it’s fine.” Nat says. “You don’t like movies. You came anyway. Want to do something else?”

“I don’t want to take you away from the film.”

“Let’s spar.” Nat walks over, grabs his wrist, and drags him from his place on the sofa next to Bucky. Matt instantly misses the close proximity he had with the vibranium. Not that he’s going to let anyone know that.

Matt’s never sparred with Natasha per say. When they were dating, they did the occasional ‘spar’, but neither were trying their hardest. It was more of a foreplay kind of thing. When they’re out of the room, Nat stops dragging him and instead just leads the way to the training room. He’s been there countless times. “Clint says you struggle to find sparring partners.”

“Massively. Are you going to be one of the ones who say ‘yes’ or ‘no’?”

Matt hums. “I think, I fall into neither category.” He smirks. “I think, you’re forcing me to fight you, and the outcome… that’s undeterminable.”

“I have you beat, Daredevil.”

He knows.

They stretch first. “What style?” Nat asks.

“You choose.”

“Feeling cocky?” She taunts. “Or are you just that inexperienced?”

“Then any style of fighting goes.” He decides. “Unless that puts you too out in the open.”

“Free style. Hold down for… five seconds is the winner?”

“Ten.”

“Need longer to get out of the hold?”

“Longer to prove I can have you pinned in a fight.”

“I’m no petty criminal.” Matt only smirks in response, and he hears Nat’s heart increase for the first time this evening. She’s beginning to doubt her chances.

Matt strikes first, and they’re off instantly. Both holding back, just like before. Matt ups his game slightly and has her pinned. Three seconds and she’s out of the hold, back to fighting. Fighting. Fighting. It’s easy. So easy, and Matt can’t handle it. He’s all pent up.

The only person to ever beat her is a ‘fucking old bastard who needs to stick the fuck away from children’. That must have been a pun intended. Nat’s smart. There’s no way it was coincidental. “That punch was clumsy.” She notes, and Matt gets his head back in the game. It was clumsy. He wasn’t focussed. Stick would be disappointed. He’d also be disappointed if he knew Matt was giving away the knowledge of all of his abilities. He’s a secret weapon for a reason. Ready to be underestimated.

Fuck secret weapons.

Matty’s been activated.

He pulls out a trick he taught himself, just after Stick had left. He has Nat pinned in two seconds.

She stays down for ten.

Matt steps back. Nat gets up. Soon the Avengers are all at the door, a little more out of breath than usual. They ran. “Did Daredevil really just beat you?” It’s Tony who asks the question, but he doesn’t get an answer as Nat attacks from behind, but Red sidesteps beautifully, and spins around, kicks Nat in the face, and sets her off balance. He flips over her and steals her signature move, strangling her with his thighs. Ten seconds. Matt jumps down. The room is in silence.

“Again.” Nat orders. He nods. The Avengers take their seats… except Clint who runs back for the popcorn.

This time, Nat lets loose a little more. Tries a bit harder. So does Matt.

He wins round and round again.

“Done?” He taunts. He knows she isn’t. He wasn’t aware before, but now he realises he needs a partner just as much as her. She shakes her head no, flips her hair over her shoulder and charges towards him, more like a soldier than a martial artist. Daredevil smoothly corrects her style by forcing her into practicing jujitsu, and he switches between karate, kickboxing and wrestling before ending the fight with a jujitsu move.

“Where did you train?”

“Nowhere.” Matt answers.

“There’s no way you taught yourself all these moves. But the way you stitch them together so randomly… it’s completely unique. Very effective. Very imaginative.” Nat pauses, and Matt hesitates. “Very childish.” Nat strikes first, sensing that she’d hit a nerve somewhere along the line. She’d hit many. They fight, and Nat gives it her all. Matt matches her and they’re left sparring for what feels like too long. Someone needs to win. Nat grunts forcing him into a hold, but it’s one Stick taught him himself, and he spent weeks perfecting how to get out of. He spins, backflips over Nat, flips Nat over himself and locks her in a similar position before forcing her to her knees and doubling over herself so her forehead rests on the mat. He locks her hands in position behind her neck, unable to move. There’s no practical jewellery there.

Ten seconds pass.

Matt steps back panting.

Nat’s just as out of breath as he is.

“You beat me.” She breathes. “How do you do it?”

“Beat you?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “No. How do you fight like you do? You fight in three tenses.”

“What?” Clint asks, and Matt angles his head down to the floor. He doesn’t want anyone trying to make eye contact with him during this conversation.

“You fight the moves I’m about to make at the same time as hitting the same moves I’ve just made, and then you’re constantly blocking the ones I’m making at the moment. And it doesn’t matter if I attack from behind. You always know.” Throughout her analysis, Nat’s heart has been speeding up. “Only one person’s ever beat me before you.”

“An old man.” Matt says.

“You know him?”

“I don’t know. Clint didn’t know his name.”

“Nope! Because you never told me Nat! Though, Red did look very angry the other night when I bought it up. He left through the window!”

“I didn’t want to stick around.” He says. Change in a heart tick.

“But you bought him back drunk.”

“I couldn’t leave.” Matt says, meaning Clint, but this has become a conversation of hidden truths and the statement causes Nat’s heart to rocket. “I didn’t want to, not really. Believe it or not, I actually like Clint.”

“Thank you!” Clint exclaims. “See Tony, not everybody hates me!” Tony snorts.

“He’s a dick though.” Tony laughs… full on laughs, and Steve elbows Tony in the side. “He’d have left me in an instant.”

“Would not!”

“Would too.” Matt argues, immaturely, childlike. Today, Matt figures, he’s just been destined to have the mental state of a child.

“Would not!” Matt beams and takes off down the hall running. Clint follows him. The other Avengers have a small debate about whether it’s too childish to participate in an unestablished game of tag, then decide it is definitely on their level and run after them.

“Friday.” Nat says. “Thank Red for the present, tell him it was the best thing he could have ever given me.” Matt smiles to himself. “And ask if he’s up for sparring on alternate Tuesdays, half five.” Matt gives a thumbs up.

“Daredevil has agreed to your request. I’m sure he is looking forward to it just as much as you.”

“Good.” She says. “Because if he thinks he can reveal some tragic backstory and get away with it, he’s got another thing coming.” Matt throws his head back laughing.

“Friday:” Red whispers, “tell Nat if she thinks she can go a day without me mentioning yellow cars she’s got another thing coming.” Friday repeats the message.

The irritated scream that comes from the training room doesn’t need super hearing to be heard.


End file.
